The studio that brought you Iron Man, Captain America, Thor and the Avengers takes a bit of a gamble developing a lesser known comic property into its latest franchise with 'Guardians of the Galaxy'.

The Plot: Abducted as boy in 1988, human Peter Quill grew up among the stars to become a not-so-famous outlaw. After boosting the sought-after Infinity stone, Quill finds himself teamed with a ragtag group of alien outcasts and relentlessly pursued across the galaxy by the genocidal Ronan the Accuser.

Some movies are made with a singular objective in mind, to be wildly entertaining. More often these films end up only providing a mind numbing experience, relying too heavily on CGI effects and explosions galore to do the job. Guardians of the Galaxy does have all the CGI and explosions one would expect from a summer blockbuster. But it also has a very likeable cast, bringing enough heart and fun to fill up a star-system.

That documentary they made about me a few years back may have been pretty shallow, but at least now the whole world knows what chumps the Nova Corps are compared to a Green Lantern's might!

The day we need the help of the likes of Kanjar Ro in defeating a single warship is the day I give up ring-slinging.

Posted by: H_Jordan_SkyPilot on 8/13/2014 2:00:23 PM

I AM GROO!

Posted by: Groo on 8/13/2014 1:55:07 PM

Just wanted to make a few corrections:

1) Bautista is not exactly a newcomer even though this is his first starring role. He's great in action movies and has lit up the most recent Riddick movie and Man of the Iron Fists with his presence. I thought his performce in Gaurdians is standout; it's very rare to have a musclebound guy that can deliver sardonic lines with fantastic deadpan comedic timing; in the 80s all we had was Schwarzenegger, Stallone and Lundgren who came across like dumbells in comparison.

2) In space nobody speaks English. Civilized species tend to use translator cybernetic implants to facilitate communication. It's only on Earth that we accept this whole Tower of Babel legacy. This is addressed in the comics, but I did wish that they put a token explanation in the film especially when Drax's vocabulary was a topic of conversation.

3) Piloting ships: Yes, all the Star Wars and Bond tropes were present. However, it was usually Rocket Raccoon making things work. As comic hero fans this should be easy to accept because he is a known tactical genius with an affinity for gadgets and the reflexes of a rodent.

4) 5-star movie. Best space opera since the first Star Wars series and made George's handling of the 2nd trilogy look just plain dumb. Also, the best introduction of the individual personalities on a team ever! Everybody's persona shown and matched the source material. Compare that to the X-Men movies which were a much larger property and the writers did a terrible job of portraying a team and only fleshed out the characters played by higher-ranking actors. A decade in and casual moviegoers still know nothing of Colossus and think that Wolverine is the field leader while Cyclops is that wooden guy that died off-camera. (just one point of comparison)